Stargate Hastings
Chapter Eight: Battle joined
Aboard Ra's vessel Abydos.
When he realised that he was alone with Ra. Jim knew that this would be his only chance. He stood up and then realised, that he was no longer dressed in the same clothes. He was now dressed in a similar manner to the Jaffa, that he had seen walking about the palace, that was now his prison. He knew that he was on Ra's vessel but it was definitely a palace. The place even made the Stamford estate, look modest in comparison. With gold seemingly everywhere in the room around him.
Ra was just sitting there staring at him, with an amused look upon his face. "I have never witnessed a slave, endure the torture that you have". Ra spoke in the booming voice of the gods, as he spoke to him in the Gau'auld language.
Jim knew enough to understand him now and could speak enough of the language to answer him. He was not fluent in the tongue like his son but he knew enough to have a conversation. "That is because I am no slave". He told Ra. He could feel the arrogance he now felt, because of the repeated exposure to the Sarcophagus. He had felt his growing self importance, each time he was removed from the thing.
"All of your kind are slaves, that was the purpose for which I created you". Ra told him.
Jim laughed at what the child sat on his throne, had just told him. "You are a parasite, inside the mind of a child. You create only lies". With San'kha not there, Jim dropped the fanatical act. It was for San'kha's benefit, not Ra's. San'kha was a slave, that had been indoctrinated from birth to worship the gods. His was a mind that had already been manipulated and was malleable because of that fact. Ra was an ancient being, that was obviously a master manipulator himself. Jim knew he would need to use a different strategy, against him.
"So you know of my true nature. Tell me human, who was the one who revealed this knowledge to you. Was it this one true God, that you worship?". Ra seemed to be truly interested, in Jim's God.
The arrogance of the childlike ancient being before him, was the mirror image of the arrogance he felt within himself. However Jim noticed something about Ra, that the alien must not have realised he was letting show through. He feared this God of Jim's. "I have no God. I worship no one but my own free will and that is more dangerous to someone like you, than an actual God could ever be". He started laughing at Ra, intentionally trying to anger him.
Jim got his wish. Ra was on his feet and had closed the distance between them, with a speed that did not seem possible. Before Jim could even think about what he had just witnessed. A stream of orange coloured energy, seemed to bore a hole into his brain. The pain he had suffered at the hands of San'kha, had been nothing in comparison to this. He did not even know which of Ra's hands the energy was coming from, his eyes were rolled almost completely back into his head.
By the time Jim had regained any kind of composure at all. Ra was sat back on the throne as if nothing had happened. He smiled as he said to a still recovering Jim. "The power that I bestow on the Jaffa, is nothing compared to my own. I will ask you only one more time. Who is this God you worship?". He was trying to act like the information meant nothing to him. Only Jim could see that he felt genuine fear, concerning this new God.
"I have told you the truth, my only God is my freedom. Torture me as much as you like, that truth will not change". He was expecting more of the same treatment but instead Jim only heard footsteps, approaching from behind.
When he felt the vice like grips of the two Jaffa, that had grabbed him from behind. Ra said to him. "You will make a fine host for my son". He approached him as he spoke. When he reached him, he started admiring Jim's near naked body. Because of the Sarcophagus his body was in perfect physical condition. With none of the two decades worth of scars, from his service in the army now visible. "I may even make him a system lord, with a face like yours he will be respected by all. San'kha, I may even appoint you as his First prime".
Ra turned to San'kha, who was behind Jim and the two Jaffa. Then asked him. "Would you like that San'kha? Instead of the God that you did not wish to be, you will be a First prime. Branded like all the rest of my children's Jaffa. Is that what you wish for?".
"I wish only to serve the gods. If that is my destiny, I would be honoured to serve my Lord". Jim could not see him but he was certain the Jaffa would be bowing down, like the slave he was. Ra did not realise the mistake he had just made but Jim had and would use it when the time came.
"Yes, that is why you will be rewarded with a new Primta. I told you that this man was your destiny, you will indeed become his First prime San'kha". Just then a man came into view, with a golden urn and Jim suspected that what was in it, was to replace the one San'kha was holding for Jim.
Plan A was done for, Ra's attack had put an end to that. He was hoping plan B, was not going to be needed. He did not even know, if he could fight back against the Gau'auld but Ra would soon find out if Jim's claim was a valid one. Would Jim's determination to never be a slave, be enough? He did not know but that parasitic bastard is going to know, that he as been in a fight. Jim thought to himself.
Ra asked San'kha to approach and when he did, he reached into the pouch in San'kha's stomach. What was wriggling in Ra's grip, Jim knew was an adult Gau'auld parasite. Larry had called them Symbiote's but they were parasites. Symbioses meant two things working together, while this creature only wanted to dominate him.
Still stood there with his son in his hand, Ra said. "Torture will not get you to reveal the name of your God but soon my son will". Before Jim felt the back of his neck be sliced open and the creature start burrowing himself into the opening, that its razor like mandibles had made. He thought to himself, that Ra had just slipped up in front of his Jaffa. He was certain none of them noticed, except one. Jim had opened San'kha's eyes and the look that was on his face for just a second, gave him hope.
He then woke up in a torture chamber, that was not the one that he and San'kha, had spent so much time getting to know each other in. He was also not the one being tortured. He was restrained on a table that had been stood up right, so that he could witness the other person being tortured. That person was his mother and she was begging her torturer for mercy. He could not see who it was that was torturing his mother and when he tried to get a proper look at his face. He was suddenly the one who was torturing her.
He could not stop himself from inflicting the pain on his own, very deceased mother. He did not care, he had loved his mother as all children should but she had died long ago. Before he had been too stubborn to give the Queens men their silver back and committed himself to over two decades of servitude to the British army. He still had the coins they had given him, they were back on... He instantly thought of something else, anything else.
The body that he no longer had control of started laughing and the woman on the table was no longer his dead mother. It was now Rachael Hawthorn and he was back on the table restrained but able to see everything, that he was about to do, to the only woman he had ever truly been in love with. The man that he now knew was himself, turned to face him.
He had a very sharp looking blade in his hand, that was a little bigger than a scalpel. The face that was his but not his, eyes flashed in the same way that Ra's had. "I believe I will start with her pretty little face". When he turned back to Rachael, before he began he said. "It is a shame that she was able to get away, she would have made an excellent Host for my Queen. Only a System Lord, is given the ability to alter one of our kind into a Queen. Ra will give me that ability once I learn the location of your world. Perhaps I will go find her, yes I believe I will. You are strong for a slave but it is only a matter of time".
He was then forced to watch, as she screamed from the pain of him carving her face up. The screams that she let out were even worse, when he started peeling her skin off of her face. He almost forgot that none of this was real but the Parasite had not added one thing, to his little charade. Rachael Hawthorn was screaming and begging for mercy, why wouldn't she be. Not once had she shown any kind of defiance towards her torturer, she just begged for mercy.
As Jim was making his realisation, the demon knew that something was wrong. He spun around without even moving, he was the master of this dream state. It was a place of his own creation, he merely needed to think and it would be. He was not expecting the man who was restrained on a table, across the room of the torture chamber he had created to break him. To head-butt him very hard and more importantly, it had actually hurt.
Not as much as the animalistic blows that continued to rain down him, as Jim sat atop him on the floor. Jim then grabbed him by the throat and said in a very evil sounding voice. "Is that the best you have got, torturing my dead mother and then a woman, that I know would never plead and beg for her life and you expect this to break me. Your little dungeon is nothing compared to the hell I've seen. Come God, let me show you what hell really looks like".
Somewhere in Afghanistan. October 1879.
Jim and his regiment had been a part of the original invasion by the British Raj. The vast majority of the troops had been Indian natives but leading those men, were selected British born regiments. Jim's had been one of them and it was a success for the most part. A treaty was signed to prevent the British invading further and the troops were pulled back. The slaughter of Sir Louis Cavagnari, his guard and all of his staff, changed everything.
Jim and his team were reconnaissance. Their job was to scout out the path, that the bulk of their forces were to travel along. They were working in two, four man teams but they would all meet up to camp for the night. That way they could all get some sleep, with four of the men always on guard duty.
During the day they would never see anyone but they had been attacked and lost men, on many occasions when night time came. They were doing an important job. The route the bulk of the British Raj's forces would take was the same as the one previous, at least the one their part of the invasion had taken but it still needed to be scouted out for man made obstructions and traps that may have been set.
It was one of those nights, that he had dragged the Parasite down into. The four men who would sleep, did not have four men standing over them. If anything they were being used as bait. All four of them would not sleep at the same time either, they would rotate ready to spring into action when the trap was sprung. Only this was different to the others, this night it was not a group of Afghans stumbling across them.
It started with just one of them but quickly it sounded like there were tens, even hundreds of them. All making a strange screaming, that they were using their tongues to reverberate the sound of. He heard the first shot from one his men, followed by a scream. There was no second shot and his training kicked in. He knew that he still had three men hidden or thought he did. He ordered his men to each face in a different direction, they were definitely surrounded and they were probably not going to survive this but he was a soldier and a soldier did not think, they acted.
Fewer soldiers were carrying swords these days, preferring to use the bayonets on their rifles. Jim and the men who served under him did though. For situations just like this, when the enemy may be on you before you have a chance to reload. They had eight rounds each before that would happen but even if they hit home with every shot, it would not be enough.
He had known the three men with him for years and they knew him. He would not rather of had any other men with him, that was until Bennett took one to the head and went down and then he just wished that they were anywhere else but where they were. The shot had came from their own comrades weapon, which meant they had to get out of there. The sniper had given away his position and was taken out by one of the three remaining friendly snipers but had in turn given away his own position.
They heard his death scream, followed by two more. Then the men started running at them, one after the other. They took down several before their numbers forced them to draw their swords. That was when he gave the order to run. Smithy and Fraser were like siblings, who would argue with each other over anything but would take offence if the other was insulted by another. If any two people ever had each others backs, it was those two. Which meant he just needed to worry about himself, they would keep each other alive if that were possible.
He knew which direction to head they all did, he just needed to hack through as many as he could and run. Run because his life depended on it. They were not cowards for running, it was their job. They were reconnaissance, they bought back information and that many enemy combatants, was definitely something worth reporting. Their bodies left on display, as a warning to the invaders. Would only tell them so much, about what had happened to them.
It was not Jim who was experiencing all of this, it was the Gau'auld. Because the Gau'auld knew something, Jim soon realised that he knew it as well. He had dragged them here and then he had given control over to the Gau'auld. He was experiencing it all for the first time, whilst Jim quietly learned everything he could about his enemy.
One of the things he had learned, was that an actual memory could not be altered. They could create something using other memories or even their imagination but an actual memory could not be changed, whilst they were reliving it. Time would also pass differently, with hours seeming to pass here but in truth, only seconds had passed in the waking world. He also discovered, that he was not burdened with the handicap of not being able to alter the memory.
Human memories were nothing like the Gau'auld's perfectly clear recall. Humans filled in the background of most of things they remembered, with their own imagination filling in the parts that they had not focused on. Two different soldiers, would often give different reports on what they had witnessed. Usually they would paint the same picture but small details would be different. Neither man were lying, it was just the way that they remembered the situation. It was because of this that the human memory that they were reliving, could be altered while the Gau'auld's could not.
However, now was not the time to exploit this knowledge. He would have to let the Gau'auld believe he was defeating him. He had been able drag him into this memory, because of the shock that the thing had felt at actually being hurt by his blows. Jim was not using his body to hit him, his body was unconscious in Ra's throne room. He was hitting him with all of his hatred and anger but it was his thoughts that were hurting him. Each blow that landed was doing nothing to it but when he struck him he thought that he was inflicting the pain.
He had made his restraints disappear in the same way and then appear directly behind him. It was the Gau'auld who had shown him how, when he had changed the woman being tortured. Jim had seen him close his eyes for a second as if in deep thought before she changed and he had realised how things worked here. Now he would take him back to where he believed he was in control and hope the creatures arrogance would blind him to the truth.
When Jim bought them back to the torture chamber, he was the one on the floor being beaten. Then the next moment he was back on the table, only it was in the horizontal position and not the vertical one, that allowed him to witness the two women, that he had loved more than any others be tortured. He knew that the Gau'auld could cause him greater pain here, than San'kha had in the real world but he did not try to escape, he simply tried to think of nothing.
He needed to seem defeated, to seem Kek but he could not give up the location of earth, he had buried those symbols deep. Once the Gau'auld believed that he had won the battle for his body, he would awaken and speak to Ra. He would then take back control long enough, if he could. To insult Ra and water the seed that he had planted in the ancient ones mind earlier. He would then allow the Gau'auld to bring him back here, for more punishment and more false belief that he had been broken. Then he would insult Ra again, to make the Parasite look weak in his fathers eyes.
Eventually Ra would tell him that he was too weak to be a System Lord and the cracks would then start to show. When that happened, Jim would become the torturer and the Gau'auld would be the one who breaks. What he had shown him was nothing and what had happened that night became a regular occurrence. He as not been almost crushed by dead bodies yet and nearly suffocated from the pressure. That one particularly haunted his dreams, now he was using them to guard his secrets.
Whenever the Gau'auld would try to make him think about his home world, he would pick a more gruesome one each time to protect it. He would be begging for mercy and his screams were real but they were from the horrible memories he was reliving. His tears were real, they were tears he had always denied himself. He was a soldier, more than that he was a man and men did not cry. Unless they needed someone to believe they were weak, that they were Kek. The Gau'auld felt his pain and in his arrogance, he believed he had defeated him.
That was when he returned to torturing Rachael, only this time Jim played along and let himself believe it was really her. The constant crying and begging for mercy, was actually more tiring than the torture. It was not breaking him but it was sapping his mental strength. The Gau'auld knew that he had not broken him, if he had then he would know his home world and the symbols he would need to get there. He did however, believe that he had done enough to take complete control of his body.
